I am sitting with a group of technology integration specialists and professional developers at the Edublogger Con 09 at NECC. First question from Darren Draper was how many of you set up a backchannel at your school.

Liz Davis was hoping are what are some out of the box ideas. What would PD look like if you could envision it in the future?

Time - build more time - Liz shared that independent schools have freedom - and can build this into the schedule. Jeff - you need to get the administrators on time. Administrators need to be required or have a pre-session for administrators on what will be taught during the workshop for the teachers.

How do we support administrators? Administrators are concerned about accountability - need to build trust. There has to be that structure to mull ideas. Need PD that is really engaged in. The big risk is that you have highly motivated teachers that would put in the time who might give up.

It's not about what's cool. Looking at the school and curriculum focus and how technology can support the standards.

One teacher discussed modelling trust. It's okay to leave their computers open and have backchannels. Are you looking for feedback instantly? Are you looking for a note-taking support system to refer to later?

The presenter can look at the backchannel like Elluminate or Twitter to see what was understood or what was not. We need to differentiate our professional development. Possibly set up a Ning before or after any formal PD.

Tech coaching is one strategy - one high school district has tech coach with an unconference setting with a taste of technology. The person was not supposed to prepare at all and just show the lesson as how you used that technology in the class. They identified experts on different technology and will be setting up another unconference . When we have 15 people interested in learning how to blog, then we'll set up a session for you.

Jeff Utecht - speed-wiki and set up high-end users who gave a 3 minute pitch so teachers got to see 10 different things that gave them the why I should be doing this or not. Then we'll have the support built in. Having other teachers show what they are doing in their classroom. Set up individual educational technology plan (IETP) based on the NETS standards. one on one around 3 standards.

Tools pot-luck - bring food and sit and play on what you like to do with technology in your classroom.